For the week of 4 July 2021
Embodiment in adversity

Fehu is the half-month rune through 14 July. Hagalaz is the intuitive rune, and Laguz reversed indicates Corrosion’s message to us. Read right to left is Fehu, Hagalaz, then Laguz reversed.
The Weekly Rune Free Version - Fehu for the Week of 4 July 2021
The Elder Futhark runic calendar provides to humanity keys for how we live in season with All Things. Through #theweeklyrune I share the Futhark’s insight on how to live better as animists, to make better choices based on keen insight into the present, and to help each of us be more active in creating a better life for us all. That realization includes living with All Things as family, learning to tend what can’t just be fixed, and using every tool at our disposal to do so. The runes are such a tool, and in the Old Norse tradition, this process is wyrdweaving at it deepest potential. The runes provide one way that we can create ourselves as fit elders, so that upon our good death, we can be well Ancestors.
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What’s a half-month rune?
“Half-month” is an astronomical concept in which each month is divided into two parts: days 1-15, then 16-month’s end. In terms of the runic calendar, each half-month rune is one of the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark, and governs for a tad over two weeks (14 and 1/4 days, or a fortnight).
Learn More
The Weekly Rune is a three-rune cast. Those runes are the half-month, the intuitive rune, and the overview. The half-month is a set rune, which for the most part follows the traditional ordering of the Elder Futhark. The intuitive stave (meaning, I draw it blind) indicates the life force most available to us, to the focus of the half-month rune into sharper focus. It suggests how we can best handle the half-month energies. The final rune (also drawn blind) provides a high overview of the current time, and speaks from different voices. These voices have been Nature, Earth, Creation, though are sometimes others. I note who’s speaking each week, as it is revealed.
New to The Weekly Rune?
- Catch a couple of my IGTV videos, which explain the intention and process behind the runecast, and what makes it different from other ways of casting.
- Listen to my What in the Wyrd podcast, which is available across all popular podcast platforms, including Google Play and iTunes.
- A few people have asked the reason that I switch between different rune sets for TWR. The short answer is: because. The more nuanced answer is, I ask which sets wants to speak each week. I don’t assume the same elements are in play according to the timing of the runes; I also don’t assume the same elements of my runes are appropriate to speak each week. I did a podcast on this subject, so there’s more info there. (See above)
- Also, for deep work on coming into relationship with the runes in season, check out my book, Runic Book of Days.
The Runecast
Fehu marks the runic calendar’s new cycle, and it starts on a very high note. Fehu is the rune of assets that must be tended, and as such, it portends that we have them to tend. Where we do, we give them what they need and consider what we have to give. This sounds like a very logical and caring thing to do. The runes of this cast suggest our tending process will be met with some challenges this week, in the form of external stress and how well we remain embodied through it. In settler culture, we aren’t terribly mindful of community welfare. We have been raised with me/mine motivation. Even the most spiritual among us struggle with how to meet our own needs and still give to those who have less. This week’s cast sheds light on how to deal with external stress, remain embodied, and share wealth.
Learn more about this seasonal progression, and how to draw its insights into the personal spiritual path in Runic Book of Days.
What does it mean?
Again, the bones didn’t have commentary to add this week. I’m sure we’ll see them again when they have input.
Fehu represents recognizing what we have, seeing what we have as life force that requires attention from us to stay viable, and honoring the loop of relationship that develops from that tending. When we look at wealth that way, not only what wealth is and how to recognize it in our lives changes, so does our relationship to it. What can be difficult to realize is that we are in relationship to our assets, even if we perceive that we have very few of them. I’m not saying that just getting into direct relationship gets us more money. I’m saying that it can’t hurt.
We’ve all had the capitalist idea shoved down our throats that to gain we have to spend. That wisdom has been interpreted as spend money to get money, which conveys as privileged crap. This runecast puts a different spin on that ideology, at an animistic level. It suggests that in order for our assets to thrive we have to see them as their own life force rather than our possessions, and we must feed them. Most of us take better care of our houseplants than we do our assets. Literally, we must make space for them, talk to them often, ask what they need and follow through. They have choice just like we do (albeit a different kind of agency). When we understand that our treasures–whatever we define them to be–have their own trajectories and we become active in relationship with them spiritually, all involved thrive. There must be action and exchange. The ideology then becomes in order to grow assets, take thoughtful care of the assets. When we do that, we become the assets. We see there’s no division. All in the relationship grow. Read more…
For more insight into the runes, tending your unquiet dead and Ancestors, and cultivating a strong spiritual path
join my community Runes for Change.
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#beyourcommunity

S. Kelley Harrell, M. Div.
I’m an animist, author, deathwalker and death doula. For the last 25+ years, through Soul Intent Arts I’ve helped others to ethically build thriving spiritual paths as fit, embodied elders, who upon death become wise, capable Ancestors. My work is Nature-based, and focuses soul tending through the Elder Futhark runes, animism, ancestral healing, and deathwork. I’m author of Runic Book of Days, and I host the podcast, What in the Wyrd. I also write The Weekly Rune as a celebration of the Elder Futhark in season. Full bio.
#beyourcommunity ~ #youareecosystem
elder well, die well, ancestor well
Elder Well
To bear your unique gift to the world.
Die Well
To leave the planet better than you found it.
Ancestor Well
So that your descendants never elder alone.